The Forest Compensation Program was developed based on prior requirements for establishing planning and management of activities, seeking continuous improvement of the process, with the following objectives:
- Comply with legal regulations, Forest Compensation Programs and other requirements related to the allocation and/or forest recovery of areas that aim to compensate for the impacts of vegetation suppression for the installation/operation of projects, provided for in environmental studies and/or in the environmental conditions for their licensing;
- Compensate for vegetation suppression for the implementation/operation of the Company’s projects, seeking to restore ecological processes in relevant areas;
- Seek improvements in restoration processes, optimizing costs and deadlines, and,
- Contribute to the preservation of ecosystem support and regulation services provided by preserved/restored areas.
Focusing on the environmental aspect, the main benefit of forest compensation actions is to maintain or recover areas in the same proportion or in a greater proportion than the areas affected by vegetation suppression necessary for the implementation or operation of the projects.
It is important to highlight that the environmental studies carried out always seek to target the most anthropized areas for vegetation suppression, avoiding legally protected areas, such as Conservation Units, Legal Reserves and Permanent Preservation Areas.
On the other hand, to define areas for forest compensation, in the case of actions that seek to maintain or conserve an area, those that present the best environmental conditions are listed and, subsequently, many of these come to have protection measures such as registration in the land registry.
As for compensatory plantings, as a rule, priority is given to the connection between forest fragments, which can serve as ecological corridors.
When carrying out compensatory plantings or plantings for landscaping purposes, the Company prioritizes the use of native species from local ecosystems. The list of native flora species used in Copel GeT’s forest compensation projects can be accessed here.
